Examining the renewable energy consumption-economic growth nexus in sub-Saharan African countries

Given the role renewable energy is likely to play in the context of sustainable development, it is important to understand the relationship between renewable energy and economic growth. Therefore, this paper examines the relationship between renewable energy consumption and economic growth in a panel of sub-Saharan Africa countries from 1990-2011. Using a production function framework, the dependent variable is real GDP while the independent variables include renewable energy consumption, capital, and labor. The panel cointegration and Fully-Modified Ordinary Least Squares (FMOLS) results indicate the existence of a long-run and statistically significant relationship between real GDP and the independent variables. The results from the Granger Causality tests indicate unidirectional causality running from GDP to renewable energy consumption in the long-run.